This is the game for which Jorge Costa has been waiting. It is big for SC Olhanense, even bigger for Jorge.
Porto was where he started his long and illustrious playing career. His international exposure came early, too, in the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship which Portugal won. He was a central defender and still only 19 years of age.
Though a Porto player he had been loaned out to Penafiel in 1990-91. The following season he was on his travels again helping out Maritimo. But he hit a snag one day.
Maritimo was playing at Porto and Jorge Costa had the misfortune to score against his own team, giving his parent club a goal. Though it was an accidental event, Porto wisely decided that in future loaned players were to be banned from playing against Porto!
In 1992-93 he finally made his Porto debut and helped the club win the League championship. They added the Portuguese Super Cup for good measure. Having won the domestic title the season before, Porto figured in the Champions League and Jorge Costa had his first taste of such action.
His debut in that competition came away in the quaint Achille-Hammerel Stadium against Union Luxembourg before a modest crowd of 3,552. The three officials were from the Republic of Ireland, the referee Patrick Kelly. Porto won 4-1.
As the seasons went by, Jorge developed his formidable stance as a defender. Affectionately known as “animal”, he was really a bit of a pussy cat of course! Full international honours soon followed and by the time he decided to retire from the Portugal national team he had played 50 times for his country and captained it, too.
A player never likely to shy away from any controversy, at the beginning of that same season he had had a slight difference of opinion with his coach at Porto and was loaned out to Charlton Athletic in the English Premier League. He played in the second half of the season for them.
Returning to Porto he resumed where he had left off. The team started to overtake Sporting Lisbon in the number of championships won and made inroads into the lead in titles held by Benfica. In his eleven seasons as a first team player at Porto, they won the Superliga eight times, a handful of League cups and even more Super Cups.
In 1996 he had been involved in a controversial incident with AC Milan’s George Weah. The Liberian international apparently unhappy about remarks made to him, whacked Jorge and was given a six-match ban for his trouble while Jorge was in hospital receiving remedial treatment to his face!
Success did not remain on the domestic front. In Europe, 2002-03 saw Porto lift the UEFA Cup edging out Celtic 3-2 in extra time during the final in Seville and they followed this with the triumph of the Champions League the following term when they whitewashed Monaco by three clear goals in Gelsenkirchen.
For good measure they then took the World Club Championship but needed a penalty shoot-out to dispose of Once Caldas from Colombia after a goalless draw in Yokohama, Japan. Jorge was the seventh penalty taker for Porto.
Only Maniche – later to join Chelsea – had failed from the spot. Jorge converted his kick and Porto went on to win.
These were the halcyon seasons under the direction of Head Coach Jose Mourinho before he moved to Chelsea. Mourinho had made Jorge Costa captain in succession to Joao Pinto and by this time he had switched to right-back in the team.
With Mourinho gone, it was not the same at Porto certainly not for JC and he signed for Standard Liege in Belgium. But though the team had finished runners-up and his contract ran until the following year, he decided to retire as a player. In League appearances alone for Porto he had amassed 263 matches, naturally with stints with other Portuguese clubs and in England and Belgium it was a tidy career by any standards.
Coaching seemed to be the next move and he had his first taste of being on the other side of the touchline with Sporting Clube de Braga. But after a season and a half he was fired and next came his link with SC Olhanense.
In his first season he was able to steer the club back to a top flight they had previously only enjoyed some 34 years previously. Now it’s – wheel in Porto!
